The Monster Within
by Tibbins
Summary: After the Opera, Shilo goes to the only person in the world she knows. A Shilo/Graverobber one shot.


**Hello Repo! fandom :D**

**I have long been in love with this movie but I've never written for it ... until now :P**

**Just a little Graverobber/Shilo oneshot, set after the end of the movie. (which I don't own)**

**Enjoy ^.^**

She found him eventually. It didn't take her long. To be honest it was less searching and more hanging around the Zydrate junkie meeting place. Hiding behind dumpsters from the Gencops. Or anyone really. He would show up there sooner or later, she was sure of it. After all, the Opera hadn't affected _him_ in any way. Except a slight drop in business now that Amber was running things, she had to stay reasonably clean. Plus she could now afford the actual pure stuff.

Graverobber came into the alleyway with the confidence and swagger he always had. Shilo saw him from her hiding place and tentatively stepped out from behind it. He faltered slightly. She looked like a mess. She had come straight here from the Opera, she hadn't washed or changed and it had been almost two days now. She was still covered with her fathers blood, and her wig was crusty with it. They were alone in the alley and their eyes met. Graverobber saw such pain in those eyes. Such loss and loneliness and confusion. He didn't speak. He just slowly moved towards her. She flinched slightly and backed up a step. But she didn't run. She just looked at him with those sad, sad eyes.

She was innocent still. He saw. Perhaps the only innocent one left in this Godforsaken world. And they had ruined her. If she hadn't been sheltered her whole life, had known a little danger from something other than herself then it wouldn't have hit her this hard. If she had learnt some street-smarts whilst young, gotten used to the horrible things that went on outside her four walls then maybe she would have been okay. But she hadn't, she had been protected from everything and then witnessed all possible horrors in one night. Everything she had known and loved ripped away from her, her father, her newly found godmother, the memory of her mother, her illness, everything. All at once. Graverobber had hoped that she would come to him. Even known it on some level. He was the only other person in the world that she had actually met, and she wasn't stupid enough to think that she could survive on her own, not after that night.

'Come on kid' he said gently, reaching out his hand slowly. She took it hesitantly and he led her from the alley.

They emerged in the graveyard where they had met. Shilo stopped when she saw the entrance to her mother's tomb.

'No' she said, her voice cracking 'I can't go in there'

'Then use the front door' he answered

'You don't understand' she whispered 'I can't go in there!' Graverobber sighed, then he spun the girl around and took her shoulders in his hands. She looked scared, lost.

'Look kid' he said softly 'I know it's not gonna be fun. But you need to clean yourself up. If you stick with me we'll be on the streets and you'll attract too much attention like this. Just go have a shower, then you can lock the door and never look back.' Shilo looked at him, her eyes filling with tears, but she nodded and blinked them back. She was learning. But when she spoke, her voice was small

'Could-' she stammered 'could you come with me?' Graverobber started to protest, Shilo would have to get used to doing things by herself and fast. She wouldn't want to stay with him forever after all. But her eyes were so scared and her wounds still too raw for him to refuse. So he took her hand and led her up to the tomb entrance.

As the door slid back, the smell hit them. Shilo gagged but Graverobber was familiar with this scent. The stench of death. There were bodies in here, and not just Marni's. Graverobber breezed through the tomb into the passageway leading to the actual house grabbing Shilo's arm on the way and dragging her with him. She could break down afterwards, when she was clean and not in the presence of men her father had killed. He let her lead the way to her room and sat down on the bed whilst Shilo went into the bathroom. He heard the shower start up and very faintly, the sound of her sobbing. Yes, she was a fast learner. Graverobber stood and inspected the room. The part of the house that he had seen was nice. It was large and well furnished. Although passing through the hallway and seeing the room where Shilo had been cooped up her whole life surrounded by holograms of her dead mother, he couldn't help but think that it wasn't a particularly nice place to bring up a kid. A shrine to the past. He wandered over to her desk and had to risk the temptation to grab some jewellery and other things that he could sell. From anyone else he wouldn't have thought twice. But touching _her_ things felt wrong. She could do what she wanted with them, leave them to go to waste, sell them, destroy them, it was up to her. She had no control over anything else after all. He withdrew his hand and sat back down on the clinical bed surrounded with plastic sheets and beeping machines. No place to bring up a kid at all. She may have been kept safe from the world but what did that mean really? When she had ended up as broken as she had.

Shilo emerged from the bathroom, her head pale and bald. Although Graverobber had known it was a wig, to see her without it was strange. Her eyes looked bigger, her skin paler. She looked ill.

But she was still pure; he marvelled as he watched her rummage through her draws in a bathrobe. No scars, no injection marks, just pure, clean skin, all her own. She was beautiful. Graverobber turned respectfully away as she dressed, normally he wouldn't care but then normally, neither would the Zydrate whore. She dressed in some baggy black pants and a black vest top. She then grabbed a large grey sweater and turned to him. She looked at him, chewing her lip worriedly and then she turned back suddenly and grabbed a wig. She smoothed it onto her head and flicked her hair back. It was black, shorter than her previous one but it had electric blue and hot pink and jade green streaks hidden within it. She straightened up then looked around her room. Pretty much the only place she had really known. Even the rest of the house was pretty new to her.

'So … where do we go?' she asked, voice small

'Wherever you want' Graverobber said. 'We can stay here if you like, or go to my place or somewhere new?'

'Everywhere's new to me' Shilo replied. 'But I can't stay here. Too many memories' she paused and took a deep breath. 'Your place?' Graverobber smiled

'Sure' He went to leave the room but she stopped him

'Um...' she said. He turned and cocked his head patiently 'This was the last place I ever saw my dad. Like, saw him as my _dad_. When I had no idea that he was that. . . monster.'

'What about when he was dying?' Shilo flinched but Graverobber didn't regret asking the question. The sooner she faced up to her demons, the less she would act out on it later. Maybe he could save her from the world, make her stronger.

'When he was dying he was both. I was losing my father but Repo Man was dying too, so was it all bad really? She looked at him with wide, desperate eyes 'I love my father but I hate what he was. Is that possible?'

'Yes' he answered. 'No matter what he was he was always your dad. He loved you. Does anything else really matter?' She thought for a moment, then shook her head.

'No' she said. Then she lost it. She sank to the floor, body racking with sobs, in between which the odd word of 'Daddy' and 'sorry' were heard. Graverobber looked at her there on the floor with something akin to compassion. He bent and gathered her up in his arms, pulled her into his lap and held her, crooning nonsense words of comfort. He held her as she came to terms with her grief, with her father, the loving doctor dad she had always known, and the monster Repo Man he had never shown her.

Eventually, Shilo sniffled and sat back. Graverobber turned his gentle eyes onto this fragile young woman and vowed right then that he would do his best to teach her how to survive in this world. He would stay with her and protect her. For as long as she needed him. After all, he kind of owed her. This whole thing started because he got her locked out of her home by drawing attention to himself in the graveyard. If he hadn't, Rotti would never have found her.

Shilo led him out through the front door, then she locked the door and hung the key around her neck.

All that had been three years ago. Shilo was still with him on the street. But they were now engaging in a physical relationship. She helped him with his job, she enticed more men to buy his Zydrate and business was booming. She had grown tough over the years and was now as used to bodies as he was. She was a useful lookout, a good distraction, and a hell of a lover. Graverobber had long ago given up Amber Sweet for Shilo. Whether she knew this or not he wasn't sure. She had lost her innocence after the Opera. The life of a street-rat was not an easy one and she had had to grow up fast. Luckily, Graverobber had managed to save her in those early days. Now, she could look out for herself, and he could trust her to come back safely. He had long accepted that he had fallen in love with Shilo Wallace. And that she wasn't sure she could love at all.

Still, he was an opportunist. He took what she gave him and he was grateful for it.

Perhaps she would learn he thought as she left the bed once again and wandered around the room in all her naked beauty, rummaging around for her clothes. Perhaps he could teach her.

**So ... what do you think? I tried to make it cute and sad at the same time. After all, Shilo would be kind of screwed up after the Opera, that kind of thing is bound to affect you**

**Please review and let me know if you liked it or not, constructive criticism is welcome :)**

**Love Tibbins xx**


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